The Second Neurocritical Care Research Conference will be held at the Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas, on May 18 - 20, 2012 (Baylor College of Medicine/St Luke's Episcopal Hospital). The Neuroscience Center at the St Luke's Episcopal Hospital has committed funds to partially support this symposium. The overall goal of this interdisciplinary scientific symposium is to bring together scientists and physicians from diverse fields with a common interest in understanding and advancing the applications of multimodality monitoring in neurocritical care. The symposium is unique in that it will provide a forum for presenting and discussing the latest advances in clinical trial design, research tools, and research priorities in the field of neurocritical care. The need for the design of adequate clinical trials to test these monitoring techniques will also be addressed in the context of the recently created Neurocritical Care Research Network (NCRN) to facilitate collaboration and patient enrollment. This symposium will consist of an opening reception and discussion of new approaches for multifaceted therapeutic bundles in neurocritical care with the following scientific sessions: 1) Global Brain Monitoring in the Neurocritical Care Unit;2) Regional Brain Monitoring in the Neurocritical Care Unit;3) Data Collection and Interpretation;4) Conventional Clinical Trial Design of Multimodality Monitoring;and 5) Alternative Clinical Trial Design. In addition, discussions at the end of the sessions will be organized. We anticipate approximately 200 attendees. The Organizing/Scientific Committee will consist of members from the neurocritical care community but with various research interests that represent the integrated/educational concept of the conference. At the conclusion of the conference, participants should be able to: 1) understand the importance and opportunities for research in multimodality monitoring in neurocritical care diseases;2) discuss recent scientific advances related to conventional and alternative clinical trial design and research tools that will have an impact on multimodality monitoring research;3) determine the future directions of research of multimodality neuromonitoring;and 4) initiate collaborations via NCRN and other networks for multimodality neuromonitoring research. All presentations will be video-taped and presented on "The Neurocritical Care Society" website for general public access (website has been established since 2003). Furthermore, invited speakers will be asked to submit manuscripts related to their presentations to "Neurocritical Care" for consideration for publication in a special supplement. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Significant advances in neuromonitoring have taken place in the past few years. The Second Neurocritical Care Research Conference will timely bring together a diverse group of scientists and physicians from diverse fields with a common interest in understanding and advancing the applications of multimodality neuromonitoring.